40 Years Ago: First Hall of Fame Predictions (Part Deux)

Revisiting the Beckett story I wrote at 19 — and giving away the magazine that started it all

Baseball is happening! Here’s your weekly splash of joy:

Why do you love baseball?

Brilliant Reader Bobby: “When a catcher gets bit by a ball, and the ump takes an extra long time to clean the plate to give him time to recover, and also the other way around, when an ump gets bit by a foul ball, and the catcher takes time. That unspoken relationship between them is one of my favorite things.”

Brilliant Reader Darryl: “I love the process of preparing the diamond for the game after the batting cage goes away… the mini-tractor dragging the infield, the rakes smoothing home plate, the guy with the chalk frame banging in the foul line.”

Brilliant Reader Robert: “I am always amazed that after 140 years and more than 238,000 games played, every season there will be a play that nobody had ever seen before.”

Brilliant Reader Jeff: I’m a Yankees fan, but I went to college four blocks from Fenway in 1998 and 1999, and I’d walk over for half-price student tickets to watch Pedro Martinez dominate the opposition ($8 lower bleacher, $6 upper with a valid student ID). I love the Yankees (sorry), but there was NOTHING like being in that building to watch Prime Pedro. Absolutely electric.

I scored this game where he struck out 15 Angels.

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Fridays are Clubhouse days around here. The Clubhouse is where the conversation opens up — where we go a little deeper, wander down a few side roads, have friendly arguments, chat over the weekend, and share some joy. Today, I’m going back 40 years to the very first story I ever got paid to write:

That appeared in the March 1986 edition of Beckett Baseball Card Monthly — with Dwight Gooden on the cover. I was paid three cents a word, and if you want to zoom in on the words in the introduction, you can see: I was DRAMATICALLY overpaid.

Today, I’m going back to see how 19-year-old me did.

Oh, and I should add: Stick around to the end, because I have an extra copy of that Beckett Baseball Card Monthly Magazine — which I will be giving away to one lucky (?) Clubhouse member.

If you’re a Clubhouse member, come on down — the door’s open below.

If you’re a free reader, thank you for being here. If you ever feel like joining us on Fridays — not for more, exactly, but to be a bigger part of our world — we’d love to have you.